A BRIGHT FUTURE FOR CAREGIVERS

JOHANNA S. USMAN

With the inclusion of caregiving in the K to 12 Curriculum, particularly in the Senior High School, there is indeed a big importance given to this field. In the past, people enroll in a caregiving course with the primary intention and motivation of working abroad. Today, caregiving is part of the curriculum in the basic education.

In the end, it will still be about getting a job as our learners and graduates would surely be using their diploma in caregiving in applying for work, but this time, hopefully, it will no longer be overseas but in our country where their services are also needed.

One of the goals of the K o 12 Curriculum is to produce graduates who can compete in the world market. Yes, we are preparing our learners to meet the demands of the world market. This is the reason why we are equipping them with the knowledge and skills necessary in order to succeed in their fields. But we are also providing them with the right attitude and character to use their talents and skills in service of our country and our people.

There is nothing wrong about going abroad and working there with all the talents and skills acquired in our country. In fact, our overseas workers are referred to as the new heroes of our time. This is all the more true with our caregivers who take care of the elderly and the sick in foreign lands. Many good stories have already been said about our caregivers abroad.

Sadly, our caregivers, just like many of our overseas Filipino workers, are forced to leave their families which has a lot of cost. This is not monetary in nature but the effect to family members especially the children of growing without their parents around because they are working abroad. This is the higher cost and sacrifice that caregivers and their families pay in the light of their situation.

There is a ray of hope that in the future there will be no more need for caregivers and workers like them will no longer have to work abroad because they have jobs in the country and in their communities. This is likewise one of the goals of the K to 12 Curriculum, to provide graduates with jobs in their communities.

This is not impossible because there is a growing demand of caregivers locally. There is a growing number of caregiving facilities in the country which serve both local and foreign clients. This is not a surprise because the Philippines is a favorite retirement home of foreigners who are already in the sunset of their lives so to speak.

— oOo— The author is a graduate of a caregiving course in the City of San Fernando

MAYLON D. MANALOTO, MAED

Teaching is a bundle of responsibilities and to teach is to learn twice over. Learning becomes a lifelong process and teachers are forever learners. If you ever think you have reached the acme of your performance, then you have to know it is just the start of your end. Some teachers get lazy after a few years of teaching and others do not go beyond their text book. Do you belong to any of these categories? If so then you are not a teacher but just a hard working student.

“We cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without brightening our own.” We, as teachers are entrusted with the heaviest responsibilities in the society which is upbringing and educating the new generations, molding the future generation. As Marcus Tullius Cicero said “What noblest employment or more valuable to the state, than that of the man who instructs the rising generation.” Aristotle has even gone far to honor teachers over our parents, for these only gave life, that art of living well.” We should do our best to live up to what our society expects from us. We need to be full of inspiration, hope and enthusiasm to be able to settle our students mind, flame their intellect and widen their horizons for education is not the “filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.”

Change and adaptability should always be among our fundamental traits. As methodologies and approaches change so do our teaching styles and habits. The way our teachers taught us could definitely not be the way we teach our students now and as John Dewey once said “If we teach today’s learner as we taught yesterday, we rob them of tomorrow.” We need to swim with the current and not against it and adopt the latest trend in education and be able to integrate technology into our teaching. We are innovators and aspirers after all. After this short introduction I am going to present to you some well-designed ideas about how can we be better teachers in our century and became a great teacher on our own simple way. I know the list is not exhaustive but should serve as a springboard to a comprehensive search from your part. The following are some tips able to help to fulfill our missions as mentors for our learners and able to encourage us to have our deep understanding on real purpose of our existence as teachers and trigger us to have our burning desires in serving our learners.

1.Be ready to accept differences and know that students are not all alike and allow each learner the opportunity to shine.

2.Use different strategies in different situations. Instruction may be differentiated in content, process, or product according to the students’readiness, interest or learning style.

3.Use multiple instructional strategies and variety of representations at the same time to increase the chances of reaching all students.

4.Acknowledge that students have different learning styles, learn at different speeds, are at different comfort levels of thinking abstractly, and different in abilities to make connections.

5.Make sure you integrate a varied set of activities such as skill practice, problem solving, manipulatives, games, working with technology such as computers or calculators, graphs and other visuals.

6.Never separate assessment from instruction and make sure to focus on qualitative assessment more than quantitative assessment.

7.Use a variety of formal test, homework assignments, journals, discussions and presentations. Use the results of assessments to continuously plan lessons on skills that are not yet mastered by your students.

8.Never assume what students might or might not know but find out! Use preassessment as a first step.

9.Get to know your students; know their interest and socialize with them within the limits allowed. Students will be more engaged in the learning if they feel it was developed around their interest.

10.From time to time you have to stop and reflect about your lessons, your students; and the way you teach. Try modifications and see what works and what does not.

11.You need to realize that teaching is evolutionary and always evolving. It is a bottomless well. It is and endless story of learning.

12.Hold students accountable for their own learning and let them feel a sense of responsibility towards what they are learning through effective use of heterogeneous group activities.

13.Teachers should be characterized by curtain holistic and student centered features. Teach our young learner to establish their love of learning and to have a happy and enjoyable time of learning. Some of them are summarized below.